Non-governmental organizations

Government-aligned media outlet Fresh News has published a leaked letter from the Taxation Department to the Cambodia Daily claiming that it owes $6.3 million in back taxes, a disclosure accompanied by scathing anonymous “letters” attacking the English-language newspaper and prominent NGOs. ...

NGOs in Cambodia and Malaysia are working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to repatriate six of the 30 Cambodians who sought shelter at the country’s embassy after the Malaysian government started mass arrests of undocumented migrant workers on July 1. ...

Two key members of the election monitoring group dubbed the Situation Room are seeking a meeting with Interior Minister Sar Kheng to discuss a recent government order that would bar the NGO consortium from continuing its work for next year’s general election. ...

NGOs huddled yesterday to make sense of a letter from the Interior Ministry asking them to comply with controversial provisions of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO), with some considering requesting further clarification or an extension of a September deadline for compliance. ...

A series of letters issued by the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday night – one chastising two election monitors, and another offering a blanket warning to NGOs – have again raised the spectre of the Kingdom’s controversial and widely criticised Law on Associations and NGOs ...

More than a month after confirming its investigation into new reports of rampant timber trafficking between Cambodia and Vietnam, the Environment Ministry remains tight-lipped about what—if any—progress it is making, but says the U.K. NGO that exposed the scale of the problem is itself being ...

Transparency International (TI) Cambodia yesterday said that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party appeard to have won 49.4 percent of the nationwide popular vote on June 4 based on the stations it monitored, nearly six percentage points ahead of the CNRP’s 43.2 percent. ...

An NGO coalition launched a program to collaborate more closely with the government on Wednesday, a week after an Interior Ministry spokesman admitted to threatening several organizations in order to “scare” them ahead of commune elections. CCC executive director Soeung Saran said the problems between ...

Asian election monitor Anfrel yesterday commended authorities, citizens and political parties for Sunday’s smooth commune elections, but stopped short of calling the ballot “free and fair”, raising concerns over the heightened political rhetoric in the run-up to June 4. ...

Amnesty International today accused the ruling CPP of using its grip on the judiciary to systematically harass and intimidate civil society and urged the government to drop cases against opposition activists and human rights defenders. ...

Police in Svay Rieng province on Saturday shut down a training session for 16 observers registered to monitor this Sunday’s commune elections, saying it had not been sanctioned by authorities, according to an organizer. ...

The National Election Committee has so far approved more than 30,000 observers from NGOs for the June 4 commune elections and confirmed that more than 100,000 observers affiliated with political parties will also monitor voting. ...

Civil society groups in Cambodia have expressed concerns over increasing restrictions placed on them since the passage of laws governing NGOs and unions. ...

Cambodia’s improvements on human development are the biggest in the region, but standards of living still lag behind neighboring nations, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) figures have shown.   ...

Leading mobile phone operator Smart Axiata has formed a partnership with The Asia Foundation, an international development NGO, to foster innovation and creativity among Cambodian tech startups.   ...

The Global Corruption Barometer, which was compiled from interviews with more than 1,000 Cambodians, showed overall decreases in the direct experiences of corruption in the judiciary since 2011, down from 72 percent to 59 percent in 2016. ...

Nearly 80 international and Cambodian civil society groups have signed a joint statement urging the government to halt its crackdown on activists and release five current and former senior officials of rights group Adhoc who have been awaiting trial since May. ...

Founded in 1995 by a French couple, Christian and Marie-France des Pallieres, PSE is a well-recognized charity, home to nearly 7,000 students who are educated, fed, provided with healthcare and vocational training skills. ...

Transparency International (TI) released their Global Corruption Barometer yesterday, revealing that in recent years, Cambodian citizens’ personal experience with corruption has gone down, while their perception of its prevalence has gone up. ...

The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Frederica Mogherini, yesterday released a letter outlining Europe’s continued concern with what it perceives as a deteriorating political situation in Cambodia. ...

Members of Mekong River Commission and civil society groups will be heading to Luang Prabang in Laos to attend the regional stakeholder meeting on Wednesday to discuss Laos’ proposal to build a third dam on the Mekong mainstream, the Pak Beng. ...

National Assembly effectiveness declined last year with prosecutions of opposition lawmakers, partisan passing of laws and many assembly members visiting constituents only to shore up their vote, an election watchdog claimed yesterday. ...

Government officials reacted strongly yesterday to a recent statement by NGO Global Witness calling on Switzerland, the host of this year’s World Economic Forum, to turn away Prime Minister Hun Sen and not give him a platform to find new international business partners. ...

An NGO is taking aim at development companies in a new report detailing the troubling tactics of construction companies forcibly evicting residents of Phnom Penh. The study, released yesterday, showed that among 77 sites since 2011 throughout Phnom Penh where residents were evicted so their building ...